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The most important thing that I want my children (or anyone reading this for that matter) to take from my experiences growing up poor is to stay humble, modest, and to appreciate the blessings that you have. Even though my family never had any money for the majority of my life, I knew how much they loved us unconditionally and this is something that money could never replace.

Now that I have my career that I feel very comfortable and secure in, I have finally been able to give back to my parents for everything that they have done for me and taught me over the years.

Saying Thank You

My family chose to move here to America when my father finally got back on his feet and life has been amazing for all of us ever since. My parents lives were completely turned around and even though the home they live in now can’t even compare to what we were used to in Buckfastleigh, they are still not rich by any means and their house has needed a lot of work over the years.

Because I know how hard my father worked and tried to make ends meet when I was growing up, I have been saving as much as I could to help them out in every way possible since my graduation. Just like our house, I decided to spoil my parents with a complete home renovation done by actual professionals so that my father wouldn’t have to risk hurting himself trying to fix the problems himself like I know he would have tried to do. We searched through a number of Rockford roofing companies until finding this one and had them show up to my parents house unannounced to do the renovations.

The looks on my parents faces was something that I will never forget and can’t put into words how it felt. It was one of the only times that I can ever remember my dad actually crying which of course immediately brought me to tears as well.

It’s funny how much coming from nothing can make you appreciate things like this in life and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

If you missed yesterday, there was a moment when I was a younger teenager where I promised myself that I would never let my family fall into poverty like my family had and I kept to that promise. Trust me when I say that I know how hard these times can be and I genuinely hope that anyone reading this who may be in less fortunate circumstances can relate and stay positive.

Don’t ever give up and know that if I can get out of where I was at, then so can you or anyone else who have their minds in the right place.

Providing Is My Only Goal

Having lived in a house where my father couldn’t afford to fix anything or buy anything short of food and shelter, I worked relentlessly for years going to school and making sure that I would have a future for my family. After years of school, internships, and hourly jobs I finally got my degree in marketing and am now the lead project manager for a growing everyday firm in my town.

When my wife and I had our first child we wanted to start a new chapter in our life so we bought our first brand new house. Having saved pretty much every penny I could for over 10 years, we decided to spare no expenses because I wanted to give my family the life that I did not have growing up. Unlike my parents, we were able to afford hiring actual professional roofing contractors to upgrade our new home which is something I couldn’t have imagined in my wildest dreams as a kid. I genuinely cannot tell you the feeling of having come from a poor community to being able to pay for a house.

As a kid, we were responsible for fixing everything wrong in our house or yard and the majority of the time they were simply left alone to only grow as worse problems, which I will get into more next.

For those of you who have kept up or had the time to check out my about page, you know that my family was going through pretty rough times while we lived in Buckfastleigh. My father had lost his job and we really had no choice but to relocate to a cheaper place in a cheaper town which led us there.

Now that I am an adult and have a career and consider myself to be “successful,” I really do love looking back at where I came from and it gives me an entirely new perspective and appreciation for what I have today.

Our House

When I look back and think about it I realize that for the most part, the house we lived in was an absolute disaster. Being a kid and having most of my friends living in similar circumstances I really didn’t realize how poor my family actually was so thankfully it never really effected my everyday life.

We had major plumbing, roof, and yard issues and you better believe that there was no way my parents were spending any money to hire people to come and fix these problems because there simply was no money to be spent on it.

If we had a roof (even a leaky roof) over our head and food on the table then my parents were doing their job but anything more than that was very rare to come by.